Zero Tier remote access to Blue Iris

[dok0619]

I have ZeroTier on my BI pc as well... tried a bunch of other stuff first but couldnt get my mobile BI to connect to my cameras when away from home. Like others I found a video review and tutorial online and followed it. I installed it on my android phone and so far it has been working great(fingers crossed) I'm just hoping it continues to operate that way going forward and doesnt get bogged down with free users or go to some sort of pay deal.

 

[Lawnboy1]

I have ZeroTier on my BI pc as well... tried a bunch of other stuff first but couldnt get my mobile BI to connect to my cameras when away from home. Like others I found a video review and tutorial online and followed it. I installed it on my android phone and so far it has been working great(fingers crossed) I'm just hoping it continues to operate that way going forward and doesnt get bogged down with free users or go to some sort of pay deal.

Yeah, I learned about it from a Cajoling Technologies video on YouTube. His explanations and tutorial was real simple.

 

[ccssid]

Because of Cajoling Technologies , I have had BI and ZT working flawlessly together for the better part of a year

 

[Broachoski]

Wow! Hate to see him leave YT. He mentioned some issue recently and I believe it was health related but don't remember for sure. His video simplified setting up Zerotier for me.

 

[Alaska Country]

Added ZeroTier to the Blue Iris machine today. With limited testing it works well. Could only test on an Android tablet setup to access UI3 without the need for a mobile app. Will see if a neighbor is willing to test drive ZT on a desktop on a different internet connection or with mobile data to get a feeling for data usage.

As a general question, how much bandwidth will ZT use for timeline and live viewing? Know that there are many variables, but as a general use, how much would be used for a short session? i.e. limits placed on USER accounts on this end in BI to limit overuse.

Our internet is metered at 250 GB per month at 10 Mbps up and 200 Mbps down. Is the upload speed adequate enough for decent remote viewing? Say at 10 or 5 FPS?

Usually only use 25% of the monthly bandwidth, thus the other 75% could be used for BI, but not sure how much is enough.

 

[Lawnboy1]

Dang. For some reason Cajoling Technologies is no longer on youtube! I was so excited to find this thread because up until recently, I've been using Unifi USG routers and VPNs. But there was a Windows Update that broke the ability for Windows 10/11 to VPN to USG routers. Some say they have a fix, but I've tried everything and I just cannot VPN anymore... yet Androids and iPhones still VPN to the USG perfectly. So, I began to google just how "bad" is it to forward ports directly to the BI web server -- I mean, even blueirissoftware.com homepage boasts "remote access" and I'm assuming they're taking about creating port forwards on the router. At least I now know about ZT as I'm sure there are other videos. Just shocked and bummed to see his youtube channel down.

Yeah, I looked him up and couldn't find any of his work. I also looked him up by name and only found an old live stream he'd done with someone about a year ago.

 

[spammenotinoz]

If your not paying you are the product, wouldn't trust ZT at all.

 

[spammenotinoz]

I'm sure this solution has its place (as the video talks about), but I'd always recommend running your own VPN server before using a service like this. Heck, most consumer grade routers can now run an OpenVPN server. This way you cut the "middle man" out of the equation. Setting up a real VPN is not hard.

While I agree VPN is better than this. For newbies, running VPN Server on a consumer router is rarely secure unless kept up-to-date, and MOST (not-all) don't keep the VPN Server up-to-date. Most users are pretty bad at updating their clients also.
Pretty hard to say 1 remote access method is best, they are all pretty bad unless combined with a firewall with the latest signatures. Firewall won't protect you from what is occurring within the VPN, but prevents most of the known Open VPN exploits.
However if you know what you are doing and keep VPN up to date, it's quite secure, but best with a decent firewall.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I have been trying to get ZeroTier to work for the phone and remote access when I am off the internet, but I just can't get it to work. I am working with my brother in laws setup for him. It is a T-Mobile Home Internet that he has because he has no other choice if he wants internet. Anyway, I just can't get it to go.
Are the any places I can look to get some proper instructions?
Thanks.

 

[Sammyf]

I have been trying to get ZeroTier to work for the phone and remote access when I am off the internet, but I just can't get it to work. I am working with my brother in laws setup for him. It is a T-Mobile Home Internet that he has because he has no other choice if he wants internet. Anyway, I just can't get it to go.
Are the any places I can look to get some proper instructions?
Thanks.

If you want to make it work completely without internet, see ZeroTier documentation:

Private Root Servers | ZeroTier Documentation

How to host your own root servers

docs.zerotier.com

I’m using it with internet and simply followed the getting started -instructions in their knowledge base. Only activating the network on mobile phone was a step I didn’t spot in the instructions, but it was only a click in the front page of the mobile app.

 

[Alaska Country]

Are the any places I can look to get some proper instructions?
Thanks.

Try this video. It may be the same one that was on You Tube but deleted. It is a well done presentation.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I got it to work, but some of the things don't quite work like the video said they would in the LAN access part. In the the drop down for adaptors there is no adaptor for the ZeroTier address. I just switched the remote address to the ZT one. It seems to be working now. Maybe I'm doing something wrong on my end since that is not happening.

 

[kstev99]

Try this video. It may be the same one that was on You Tube but deleted. It is a well done presentation.

Thank you so much for posting the video. I was unable to do the Port Forwarding for remote access on my Starlink Router. I now have remote access on the phone when I am away from home. Pretty simple setup, but I never would have figured out all of the steps without the very good step by step video.

 

[tigerwillow1]

It would be nice if Dahua NVRs had a ZT client built in.

The NVRs have their own P2P solution which uses Dahua servers instead of ZT servers to facilitate the connection. There is a lot of mistrust on the forum along the lines of the Dahua P2P connection being easily hackable, having a backdoor, or spied on. If the NVRs had a ZT client, there could be the same mistrust that it's hackable, phones home to china, has a back door, etc.

 

[Vtor]

While on the same home network I am able to get ZT to run. However, when placing the phone on cellular data, all efforts to connect to the BI host computer have been unsuccessful. Any thoughts?

 

[kstev99]

Make sure that you have the ZT app installed on both the home computer and the phone, as well as the Blue Iris App. When I first tried, the BI app (IOS) just sat there and spun, but when I went to the ZT app and disabled ZT for a few seconds with the slider , and then re-enabled it, BI connected right away. good luck!

 

[JeffCharger]

I do this successfully, so it must be something simple..... Have you checked that the ZeroTier client on the phone hasn't "disabled" itself when using cellular? I have seen instances where the setting doesn't stick.

 

[dok0619]

I have to set the ZT app on my android to always on...it does randomly disconnect without warning but setting it to always on android will notify me when it disconnects and bring the app up for me to enable...

 

[Vtor]

Toggling after on cellular data did the trick! Thanks so much! Truly appreciated

 

[RavenDave]

I have been using BI for a while and just found out about ZeroTier. Set it up a few days ago. WiFi working fine, but I couldn't get my android phone working away from the house. Walked through settings multiple times, no joy. Then started walking through step by step and discovered I entered the BI Server physical IP address from the ZeroTier site, and not the Managed IP address. Use the Managed IP address and you will be much happier.